What’s Behind Your Cup of Joe?

Ah, coffee. What would we do without you? For centuries, people have worshiped the brew. It has long been such a prominent feature in social life that it has been memorialized in music, poems, literature, and film. For many in the United States, coffee, anyway you brew it, is an important part of a daily routine. It is habitual–perhaps even ritual. It is a stimulating narcotic, experienced as a need, and can produce emotional sensations. It is often used as a reward to mark goals achieved–”Just ten more TPS reports and I can go for a coffee break!” It is a place to go, a state of mind, a social occasion, and a source of comfort for over half the adult population of the U.S. on a daily basis. Due to its mass consumption both here and around the world, coffee is the second most valuable export commodity for developing nations after petroleum, according to John Talbot, a sociologist at the University of West Indies in Jamaica. The global economic significance of coffee is astonishing.

What’s Behind Your Cup of Joe?

By Nicki Lisa Cole

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2010 CONDUCIVE

According to the International Coffee Organization (ICO), the U.S. is the world’s leading importer of coffee, bringing in over 3 billion pounds of “green,” or pre-roasted coffee in 2009, which accounts for about a quarter of global imports. An annual telephone survey conducted by the National Coffee Association found that 126 million adults drink coffee everyday, each consuming an average of 3.3 cups daily. If you do the math, that translates to over 415 million cups of coffee drunk everyday. Where does all this coffee come from? According to ICO statistics for 2009, Brazil is the largest exporter, accounting for nearly a quarter of all exports. The second largest exporter is Vietnam, constituting 19.4%, followed by Colombia (9%) and Indonesia (8.7%). Peru, Honduras, India, and Guatemala each account for about 4%, Uganda and Ethiopia produce 3.5% each, while Mexico accounts for about 2.4%. Nicaragua and Costa Rica each contribute 1.5%, while Papua New Guinea, El Salvador, Kenya and Ecuador register at just under 1% each.

Despite the fact that most of us do not think about coffee in terms of numbers, these numbers are worthy of attention, as they signal the global economic significance of the coffee market. In more ways than one, coffee fuels the global economy and the system of capitalist production and consumption. In fact, it has been an important piece of this system since capitalism was introduced to the global stage. This history of coffee is one filled with mistreatment of both people and land. It took hold as a major global cash crop thanks to slave labor during the colonial era, and evidence of this legacy is visible today in very low wages and poverty level living conditions of coffee farmers and pickers around the world. Consumer awareness and industry concern led to the creation of ethical sourcing models like Fair Trade during the late 1990s, and today consumers have a variety of options if they wish to make an ethical coffee purchase. In my next article, the differences between certifications and sourcing models will be explored, and the truth behind these labels revealed. But first, let’s consider the history of the coffee we drink today.

In an article on the political-economic history of the coffee trade forthcoming in the Journal of World-Systems Research, sociologist John Talbot explains that coffee was one of capitalism’s first traded commodities during the economic system’s debut on the global stage (between the 15th and 16th centuries). Coffee, having originated in Ethiopia, was grown during this time in both Ethiopia and Yemen, exported out of the port of Mocha on the Arabian peninsula, and widely consumed throughout the Islamic world. Historical accounts reveal that as European travelers explored these territories, they encountered the drink and became curious about its popularity and purported medicinal benefits and mystical effects. The coffee trade was likely brought to the European continent in 1600 by Venetians, which led to its introduction to the system of Atlantic trade controlled by the Genoese and Iberians. Dutch traders brought coffee to Amsterdam in 1616, and it subsequently played a key role in the era of Dutch supremacy in global trade.

Coffee consumption spread throughout Europe in the following century. To meet increased demand and to gain total control over the supply chain, Dutch and French colonists introduced coffee as a crop in their territories in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, including Haiti (then the French colony of Saint-Domingue). Notably, coffee was cultivated by imported African slave labor in these colonies. Clippings from these crops were brought to Central and Latin America by colonists, where coffee was also cultivated by slaves. The French brought coffee from French Guiana to Brazil in the 1720s, and in 1730 the British brought coffee to Jamaica.

The British took empire building to an unprecedented level by folding production into their control, and poured finances into producing cash crops throughout Latin America. During this phase of capitalism, the British dominated in large part due to coffee: it was their most important export from Latin America. The Industrial Revolution and the rise of the British working class fueled the expansion of coffee consumption, as did the rise of the British coffeehouse–a site of financial, political, and philosophical advances. In fact, Talbot argues that coffee was such an important export crop in Brazil that it was the main reason that slavery was not abolished there until 1888.

The great irony of this is that the drink American colonists equated with freedom was culled from beans produced by slaves.

In a talk delivered at University of California-Santa Barbara in March 2010, University of California-Irvine historian Steven Topik described that in early American society, colonial strife over taxes and tariffs instituted by the British, which crystallized in the Boston Tea Party and later the American Revolution, fueled American consumption of coffee. While the Brits profited greatly from the coffee trade at this time, American colonists were able to import coffee directly from Brazil, and thus renounced British tea and celebrated coffee as a symbol of American freedom and patriotism. The great irony of this is that the drink American colonists equated with freedom was culled from beans produced by slaves.

During the twentieth century the spreading popularly and growth in consumption throughout Europe and the United States resulted in increased coffee production and exports, which helped fuel wealth accumulation and state formation throughout post-colonial Latin America. During the latter half of the same century, as the US became the dominant global capitalist power, US led development schemes in former colonial Africa and Asia brought coffee production to those regions. In fact, the inclusion of coffee as a cash crop in development schemes resulted in overproduction and a catastrophic price crash in 1989, which devastated farmers around the world. This man-made crisis would happen again in 2003 after US led neoliberal development throughout the late 1990s pushed coffee as a cash crop in Vietnam–now the world’s second largest exporter.

Coffee’s long history in both colonial and post-colonial contexts, and its global web of production, trade, and consumption means that millions of people around the world today depend on the bean in order to make a living. In 2009, Ric Rhinehart, Executive Director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), estimated that the total number of people working in the industry could be as high as 75 million, noting that in Ethiopia alone 15 million people are involved in producing and preparing coffee for export. Those who depend on coffee for a livelihood include producers and pickers, millers, middlemen, auctioneers, exporters, buyers and importers, roasters and distributors, suppliers, coffeehouse owners and baristas. In a lecture delivered in 2010, the SCAA estimated that 10 million rural farm families depend upon coffee production as a part of their income, and noted that 80 percent of the global coffee supply is produced by small land holders of 12 acres or less. The sad truth today is that the vast majority of these producers see very little profit from their crops, and most live in impoverished conditions.

By the logic of supply and demand, the vast amount of coffee produced every year results in a very low commodity price, and thus coffee can be purchased relatively cheaply in the U.S. The average retail price for a pound of roasted and ground coffee was about $3.80 in 2009, according to the National Coffee Association, however retail prices can reach upwards of $15 per pound of roasted specialty coffee, and even as high as $15 for a brewed cup made from beans considered by industry leaders to be the best in the world (that’s $100 for a half a pound of those beans!).

While prices might reach astronomical heights at the point of sale in the U.S., those who grow coffee see little of this profit because, as the logic goes, value is added at points along the commodity chain, after the beans have been exported from producer nations. The selling price per pound of green, or pre-roasted coffee at origin as determined by traders in the commodities market in New York City averaged $1.15 per pound in 2009, and so far during 2010 has averaged $1.26 (data available through the ICO). Given the intensive time and labor involved in harvesting and processing before export, including that of seasonally hired pickers, these prices make it difficult and in fact unusual for farmers to break even on their harvests, let alone profit from them so that they can invest in their farms and their personal livelihoods.

Today, there are a variety of certifications that mark ethically sourced coffee available to consumers.

It is concern over such conditions that spurred the creation of ethical sourcing models like Fair Trade, Utz Certified, and Rainforest Alliance. Today, there are a variety of certifications that mark ethically sourced coffee available to consumers. In fact, with the wide variety out there and array of merchants offering such products, ranging from Wal-Mart to your local coffeehouse, choosing an ethically sourced coffee can be overwhelming. Are all certifications the same? How do you know if the money is really getting to the farmer? What’s the difference between Bird Safe and Rainforest Alliance? Check back for the second part of this article, which will offer an unbiased and critical evaluation of the different certifications and sourcing models. You may be surprised by the truth behind the label.

WWW.CONDUCIVEMAG.COM

Author Biography:

Nicki Lisa Cole is a sociologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She earned a Master of Arts from UCSB in 2006, and a Bachelor of Arts from Pomona College in 2002. Her dissertation research examines the growing practice of ethical consumption in the United States. Nicki’s research focuses on the coffee industry, its ethical sourcing models, and how such coffee is marketed. She interviews consumers and people who work in the industry in order to understand the identities, values, and practices that surround ethical consumption today. Nicki is committed to fighting for social justice through researching social problems, and by writing and teaching about them. She believes fiercely in the motto of New Hampshire, her home state: Live free or die.

Website: http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~nickilcole/

Email: nickilcole@umail.ucsb.edu